U.S. to blame Iran for cyber attack on small NY dam -CNN

WASHINGTON, March 10 (Reuters) - The Obama administration is
planning to publicly blame Iranian hackers for a 2013 cyber
attack against a small dam in New York state, CNN reported on
Thursday.

Citing unnamed U.S. officials familiar with the
investigation, the network said the Justice Department had
prepared an indictment and an announcement could come in the
next week.

U.S. officials say the hackers gained access only to some
back office systems, not the operational system of the Bowman
Avenue Dam, a flood control system around 30 miles (50 km) north
of New York City, and the attack was not considered
sophisticated, CNN said.

A Justice Department spokesman said he had no comment about
the report.

Asked about the report at a news briefing, State Department
spokesman Mark Toner said: "We obviously take seriously all such
malicious activity in cyberspace. We are going to continue to
use all the tools at our disposal to prevent, deter, detect,
counter, and mitigate that kind of activity."

CNN said the attack alarmed Obama administration officials,
who said it occurred at a time that Iranian hackers were also
conducting "similar probing attacks on U.S. financial
institutions."
(Reporting by Mark Hosenball and Eric Beech; Editing by
Alistair Bell)